Crimson Message
by PolandSpringz
Summary: Lost Time Memory is the point where Shintarou begins to dream of Ayano. A short dream and epilogue about the breaking point of Shintarou as he watches the horrors of entering the time loop and messages left behind.
1. Recieve

It was the dream that started it all. The young man was a boy again, trapped in that horrible classroom. Her life was lived happily, and her death was supposed to have been the same. Unfortunately, the boy would never know how glorious it was until he met her again, and he certainly wouldn't meet her actual self in this dream. Still, it was better than nothing that he could see her smile again, even if it was just a hallucination. Although, the dreams he had been given had been painful, most of them were happy memories, but this one would be hard to call happy, or pass of as a mere hallucination of the mind. For in anyone's perspective, this was beyond cruel.

It began with the basic scenario; the boy was alone in the classroom, surrounded by desks, facing the red curtains. Only this time, the curtains weren't drawn, and the desks were missing the vases of flowers that brought so much horrible memories. The boy could see out the window, it was dark out, as the sun had just set. The moon was just beginning to make its entrance, when the antagonist stepped in.

The crane.

It flashed by the window at a downward angle, all alone. His dear friend had made this for him all the time. Out of school papers, your basic tests and notices, things that were treated as important, became something important. Only this time, the crane was different. It seemed to rain down from the earth and land quickly on the ground, and just stopped. It froze, but something other than the gracefulness had been lost. That was when two more followed that the boy began to grow wide eyed with horror. It was crimson.

It wasn't made out of the color, no, it seemed to embody all of the girl's sadness and the boy's guilt within that one color. They seemed to scream at him as more rained out of the sky. The boy fell backwards with fear as he began to scream loudly. It was the only thing he could do; he felt his heart being ripped out of his chest, as though someone wanted to destroy him. And then, they all froze.

Every single crane froze right when they touched the ground and didn't move. It didn't matter whether or not they piled on top of each other or not, they all just stopped.

And then he saw it.

Everything he had gained, built up, to create a shell to protect him all crumbled in front of him as something else soared by the window. A girl.

She was being pushed to the ground by more cranes that followed. For a split second she looked at the boy, and her eyes seemed to flash to the color red for a moment as she opened her mouth to speak.

And then they collided.

It happened so fast that he couldn't be sure of what he saw but when the girl hit the ground; it seemed to engulf a part of her. Her spirit maybe? Perhaps her soul? Then it hit him. Her hope. The cranes had swallowed up her hope, leaving behind her body. The crimson cranes that layed beneath her and around began to flatten. They seemed to melt onto the ground and flow out into a puddle. Boy yelled in a fit of rage.

Then he was hit.

A wave of cranes flew into the room from the sky and knocked the boy over against the desks. He saw them sprawled out in front of them and watched as they had names written on the left wing.

_Dear Kido-chan,_

_ Dear Kano-kun,_

_ Dear Seto-kun,_

_ Dear Father,_

_ To Shintarou, the boy I loved,_

The man unfolded the last one to read a small hand written note to him. Tears fell as he read the note in silence.

_To Shintarou, the boy I loved,_

_ If you get this you probably know by now. I'm dead, right, Shintarou? I am truly sorry. See, I, I didn't want to die. Shintarou I didn't want to die really. I miss you. I miss sitting next to you and I miss talking with you. I wanted to stay with you! Why, why did I have to die Shintarou? I promised myself I wouldn't cry when I was doing this but I can't help it. Writing this I know that I won't be able to see you anymore. But Shintarou, I want you to know two things._

_It isn't your fault._

_I love you._

_-Ayano Tateyama_

The man watched as the paper turned red as his fingers traced over the last words. The material grew softer, and when it finished, a red scarf was left in his hands. The boy placed it around his neck and gently gathered up the other four cranes. He took a look at the ground below, outside the window. Then he jumped.


	2. Response

When the man awoke he was lying on his bed shrouded by darkness. The curtains were drawn, and the sudden memory of the dream filled the man's mind. He sat up abruptly, flailing his arms forward as he felt fear soak into him. He was drenched in sweat and his neck was being strangled by something. He moved his arms around to remove the tight snake like coil from his neck And stooped when he saw a wave red cross in front of his vision. The scarf.

It was with him, even though he had dreamt of it with him it was wrapped around him, it was tangible for goodness sake, he could actually touch something of Ayano's after two long years, he had Ayano back.

Or a part of her anyway.

He recalled what he had saw when Ayano hit the ground. The cranes around her absorbed her soul, her hope, leaving behind her body. The cranes that had come to him after was just a part of her soul left for him. They had formed a message of hope for him to keep, and wrap around himself. He had his hope again.

The man stood up and began to change his clothes before heading out. He didn't bother to bring hia phone with him because he didn't need the banter of the cheerful girl in his mindset.

He quietly approached the building he had dreaded returning to since that day. Yet it haunted him in his dreams, and now he would confront it. He entered it without hesitation, and began to climb the stairs and walk through the empty hallways.

When he reached the roof at long last, the man took off his satchel and began dump it over the roof's edge. He watched as the folded papers danced towards the ground, as the summer breeze picked them up once again and spun them around across the park that lay tin front of the school.

A young woman was sitting on a swing-set quietly rocking back and forth. She looked up to the sky and noticed a white paper fall down onto her lap. She picked it up, brushing her long hair out of her face.

On the left wing it read,

_Dear Ayano,_

"So you got my message after all…"


End file.
